Food Security

Everytime the monsoon fails we face the problem of food scarcity in India. Prices shoot up and those in power do nothing to tackle it. Meeting will be called by the concerned ministries. From Prime Minister onwards everyone will assure that we are capable of handling it and has done in the past. Opposition will cry foul and say government is sleeping. The Fat Pigs, I mean the bureaucrats, will roll out reams of papers to show how they managed it the last time.

It is said that every year about a Billion dollar is spend on the upkeep of Food Corporations of India (FCI) godowns. Another one billion dollar worth of stock is eaten by pests. How much gets stolen is another factor, so far no study has been conducted. What is released through the Public Distribution Scheme (PDS) is mostly cornered by the traders through the unholy allinace with the PDS officials and distribution license holders. That stock gets sold at normal market rates earning them a fat profit. What the ration card holder gets is generally that even animals cannot consume.

A couple of years back there was an incident in which goats and cows roaming around the FCI warehouse in Kerala were found dead. Investigation revealed they died due to poisoning. What they ate was rice and wheat which were infected with fungus. This is the state of our warehouses that store food grains.

When prices soar, we keep loading fresh stock of food grains into the FCI godowns. Instead of releasing it to market and cooling down the prices, our bureaucrats and politicians start sermonising how it will help farmers. When drought hit orissa and hundred of people died of hunger, government refused to release food grains to those needy. As previously mentioned we let pests eat almost a billion dollar worth of food grains. If properly managed, these excess stocks will not only keep the food grain prices under control, but also save the life of hundred of hungry poor people. Its a shame that we do not realise this even now.

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